


DNA

by Ice_the_Irken



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Biology discussion, Gen, Implied Claustrophobia, Wraith biology, there's a problem with the Jumper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29203158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_the_Irken/pseuds/Ice_the_Irken
Summary: While on a mission to sabotage a Wraith Hive ship, the team discovers something about Todd that no one ever expected.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	DNA

There was a problem with the Jumper; of course there was a problem with the Jumper; there was always a problem or some outlandish event when Todd was with these people! Then again, it often took an outlandish event for him to want to interact with the humans of Atlantis -save for maybe John Sheppard- but this wasn’t even a cause for or a side-effect of their mission, the Jumper just started having problems!

The ship would turn on, but from what Todd had gathered from listening to McKay’s quick ramblings, something was preventing the neural-interface from processing any further commands.

It was just their luck that it stopped working after they had closed the rear hatch, trapping them inside. McKay seemed reluctant to blow the rear hatch using the handle near the back, despite Todd’s repeated request, telling him that there was no need, and that they would have to reattach the door to the Jumper, and that apparently was a lot of work.

Seeing as they were likely to be stuck in this Jumper for a while, Todd was thankful that their mission required minimal people; it made the small space less cramped, less suffocating.

Their mission had been to sabotage a rival Wraith Hive that had been culling excess planets, and with no regard for alliance territories. Sneaking under radars, they had been ravaging colonies the moment they became unguarded, whether it be because a certain fleet was spread thin fighting another alliance or not. They were culling more humans than they could possibly feed upon by themselves, and whatever they were doing with the excess, whether it be horrific medical experimentation or creating an army of worshippers, they had to be stopped, so when a relay team from Atlantis coincidentally spotted the Hive and secretly followed them to an un-gated un-inhabited planet, they knew they had to act fast. As soon as that relay team contacted Atlantis with the news about the Hive, they began to assemble a team.

The mission required stealth, experience, and someone who knew Wraith technology very well. Of course they chose their top team, but the problem was that John Sheppard had already been scheduled for a meeting with the IOA over something about a ‘concerning string of questionable rule-bending and missing reports’, and the mission was so time-sensitive that they couldn’t wait until the meeting was over, so McKay had to be the one to operate the Jumper.

While McKay knew Wraith technology, he wasn’t exactly good in combat, and was the only one left on the team that could operate the Jumper. If McKay had to stay with the Jumper, they needed someone else who knew enough about Wraith technology to navigate and perform a successful sabotage. Teyla possessed Wraith DNA, allowing her to operate Wraith technology directly, sure, but she was no scientist.

Eventually, McKay came crawling to Todd for help. Since Sheppard was unavailable, they ‘figured they could use all the help they could get’.

Todd had found it amusing that such a normally egotistic human had had to bow their head and ask him for help.

Ronon had been adamant about the fact that it was a bad idea, but also insistent that he could handle and keep an eye on him, being very clear in his warning that if Todd ‘tried anything’, he would kill him. That was nothing new.

Leaving him with an annoying flimsy coward he could barely tolerate, and a neanderthal who was just waiting for the opportunity to kill him. Teyla was tolerable.

The circumstances weren’t ideal, in fact they would probably prove to be insufferable, but Todd was happy to take out a rival Hive, especially one participating in such heinous acts, so he agreed. He was already imprisoned in Atlantis like usual after all, so he was already at their mercy. He could easily use the opportunity to escape, or ‘gain a favor’.

When he had agreed to go on the mission, he had not anticipated that he would be stuck in this tiny ship. He had assumed the worst outcome would be that they might be caught and executed; he had never anticipated this.

Luckily the malfunction had forced them to land after they had successfully destroyed the Hive and gotten a significant distance away, so they were in no danger of being attacked...probably.

Todd looked up to McKay, who stood in front of his seat, poking at the control crystals in the control panel above his seat.

“Do you require assistance?” Todd felt he should at least ask that, anything to get the ship working again as soon as possible. He knew that McKay was quite knowledgeable and experienced with Ancient technology, but judging by his slow pace and array of confused expressions, Todd could easily observe that McKay couldn’t quite figure out exactly what was wrong or how to fix it.

McKay gave a curt wave, nonchalantly brushing off Todd’s offer.

“Nah, nah, I got this… piece of cake...” McKay trailed off as he squinted and pressed his face closer to the control crystals and focused. Todd wasn’t that surprised; they didn’t trust him to work on the ship’s controls, and McKay was, once again, trying to do everything himself and pushing everyone else who tried to make a considerable contribution away, his ego taking over.

Todd thought back to how meek and scared McKay was of Todd when they worked together to save McKay’s sister Jeanie, always flinching away, hardly taking his eyes off of Todd for a second, only willing to be so close to him out of his desperation to save his sister. His trembling fear of a restrained Wraith so poorly hidden under sudden bursts of stuttering assertiveness.

And now, here he stood, completely exposed in front of Todd, not even looking at the Wraith, just completely focused on his work. There was nothing to stop Todd from attacking and draining him dry, well, save for Ronon, who was sitting to his right to act as a guard in the absence of any extra marines. Ronon had had his gun pointed readily at Todd’s head ever since they sat down, and had only lowered it after Teyla’s protest that she was also right next to Todd and that Ronon could easily shoot her by accident. After that, Ronon had kept his gun lowered, but still kept it in his hand, raising it again each time Todd made a sudden or suspicious movement or comment.

The sheer eccentricity of it made the situation quite amusing.

Of course, Todd wouldn’t; he had no reason to; he was not hungry, and Mckay was worth far more to him alive than dead. The thought was just that, a thought, an analysis more than an apprehension. He had no intention of attempting to feed on Mckay, but it was amusing how easily he could.

He hardly saw any of the humans on the team as potential prey anymore; when that started happening, he didn’t know.

“Hey, Teyla, could you hold this in place right here?” McKay asked suddenly. Todd's eyes narrowed in a glare,

 _'I thought you didn’t require assistance?'_ Todd thought to himself.

Teyla got up from her seat and turned around to face the control panel. Handing Teyla a stylus pen and some crystals, McKay instructed her on where to position and hold them before leaving her and walking to the front of the ship. McKay stood beside the pilot’s seat and leaned over to place his hands on the ship’s control console, the ship flaring to life at his touch.

McKay seemed to concentrate for a second, willing for something to happen, but nothing did. McKay sighed in defeat, hanging his head low. He was annoyed and tired that he still couldn’t get the ship working, but wasn’t going to give up. He took his hands off the controls, the ship going dark once again, and walked back over to the back control panel to try again. He gave Teyla a nod and a thank you and reached for the things she was holding in place, relieving her of her obligation.

As McKay walked back, Todd shifted over to the now empty seat so he could stand up without bumping into where McKay previously was, taking note of how Ronon followed him with his gun, and quickly moved out of the crowded cargo hold to the front of the ship, deciding to move out of the crowd and out of the way if they weren’t going to allow him to help.

Todd could sense as Ronon continued to follow his movement with his gun, but other than paying ample attention to all possible threats in his environment as he had been taught since birth, he didn’t change his action; at this point he didn’t care anymore.

Placing a hand on the back of the pilot’s seat, Todd walked around it to the front of the seat and sat down. Ronon didn’t like that,

“Don’t touch that!”

McKay glanced over to them and rolled his eyes, returning his attention back to the control panel and placing the control crystal back into place. Todd sighed and also rolled his eyes at Ronon’s warning.

“I am not causing any harm,” Todd responded frankly.

“Yeah right. Get up!” Ronon flicked his gun upward a bit to imitate the command.

Todd gave a low growl as he braced his hands on the controls to ease himself up from the seat and turned his head back to Ronon,

“I cannot even turn it o-” Todd's voice cut off and he snapped his head forward when the ship flared to life under his fingers.

~~~

Todd clenched and unclenched his fists and stared at his palms, trying to comprehend the power he now possessed, deaf to the scientists and doctors buzzing about and around him.

John Sheppard stormed into the room, clearly already pissed off, but meetings with the ‘IOA’ seemed to do that to the humans of Atlantis. Todd knew just from what the others have said about the IOA that he never wanted to meet them.

“What did you do?!” Sheppard asked accusingly, snapping Todd out his trance.

“I just sat down,” Todd replied coldly, tired of hearing that same question from half of the people on the base. Todd looked past Sheppard as he caught a glance of Rodney and Zelenka running down the hall Sheppard stormed in from towards them, shoulder to shoulder like a pair of meerkats.

Sheppard turned around to face the two scientists upon hearing them enter. Upon seeing who it was, Sheppard stood up straight from his previously more aggressive stance and crossed his arms.

"Ah, the science duo. Did you figure out what’s wrong with the Jumper?”

Zelenka was able to speak first, silencing Rodney who was just a little slower like they always do to each other.

"Actually yes, it appears that a slug-like creature native to the planet had infiltrated one of the main conduits that controlled the processing of mental commands and made a nest."

"It's more like a _mucus web_ than a nest," Rodney butted in, his face scrunching up in disgust. "Must have slithered in from one of the trees in the forest we had hid the Jumper in. Opened the panel and it lunged at me."

"You should have heard Rodney scream," Zelenka smiled.

"I _did_ ," Sheppard replied. " _Everyone_ in that _sector_ did."

Rodney glared at both of them, mostly Zelenka.

"Well forgive me for _reacting_ when an _alien organism_ spits _acid_ at my face!"

“And by 'reacting' you mean screaming like a little girl and hitting a rack of control crystals with your screen-”

"I was trying to fight back- it was instinct-"

"You didn't even hit the right console!"

“We came here for a different reason, though,” McKay yelled just as Sheppard began to step forward to break apart McKay's and Zelenka's quarreling.

“So, obviously, Todd somehow gained the ability to operate Ancient technology," Rodney started.

"Obviously," Sheppard repeated.

“Yes, well, we may have a theory on that," Zelenka picked the conversation up. It seemed like the were going to be going back and forth with this. “Well, we know that the Wraith evolved from Iratus bugs by absorbing DNA from their human prey-"

“And this would happen pretty often," Rodney butted in. "I mean, it would have to happen often for them to go from Iratus bug to wraith in sixty-thousand years.”

Sheppard was pretty sure biology wasn’t their field, but at this point having any other duo of scientists excitedly explaining things to him would feel foreign, and at least it was better than Parrish.

“When you two first met...” Zelenka trailed off.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Sheppard rolled his eyes in both disgust and reluctance to remember a traumatic event. Todd himself would rather not acknowledge that aspect of their first meeting. After that initial display of abhorrence, Sheppard’s expression slowly grew into a mix of apprehension, fear, disgust, and discomfort, as he realized what they were getting at. “Wait, are you saying-...?” he trailed off, assuming the others knew the rest of his question.

Todd tilted his head slightly. Humans had a weird habit of doing that. Though he guessed having a mostly verbal communication method, things like this would come up rather often, and it would be easy for someone so used to it to predict what a person was going to say next.

His curious pondering didn't last long before he had to suppress that same expression of apprehension, fear, disgust, and discomfort. He had a feeling he knew where they were going with this as well...

Zelenka nodded in response to Sheppard’s question,

“We think that when he... did..." Rodney paused and spoke slow, trying to choose his words carefully, "he might have... absorbed some of your DNA...”

“Specifically the ancient gene," Zelenka added.

Sheppard’s face wrinkled in disgust, and Todd had to suppress that same expression that attempted to etch across his face.

Neither of them said anything. It was, of course, Zelenka, who broke the silence.

“The odds of absorbing anything - even a Wraith - successfully, is, well, very slim. The odds of absorbing the entire Ancient gene in-tact is, even less."

"Well, then again, it was... four times..." Rodney again spoke slow, both of them tip-toeing around the topic, which was probably a good thing, because even that earned suppressed grimaces from both of the commanders.

“Though that’s just a theory. We’d have to perform-”

Todd looked down at his palms again as Zelenka began to chatter on about tests. He wasn’t listening anymore; he didn’t want to hear about their plans to use him as a lab rat. He was too focused on the implications of his new abilities and what the future would hold for him due to it. He knew one thing though: He couldn't wait to find out why Doctor Beckett was so scared of the Ancient Chair.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! It feels good to finally finish a Stargate Atlantis fanfic! This one has been in the works for almost a year now, and it feels amazing to finally get it done! Thank you all for reading! Comments give me life and encourage me to write more, so if you enjoyed please tell me so! Have a wonderful day/night!


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